Google now allows searchers to instantly preview ads, similar to the way Instant Preview provides a graphic representation of a Web page before clicking through. The Instant Previews icon appears next to ads on Google.com, allowing searchers to preview the ad's landing page. The preview is available in the U.S., according to Dan Friedman.Read the whole story...

Rand Fishkin makes it easy to build great search-optimized content. So he lays out the steps that he believes will provide a competitive advantage. To do this, he crowdsources a series of questions to gain answers, using them to build the process of creating optimized content. This will identify what people like and didn't like in the search engine results pages, and "bolster" it with suggestions provided for improving the content.Read the whole story...

Chris Copeland had an epiphany. No one wants to search, he wrote. About 1.3 billion people worldwide used search last month, but how many really wanted to search for something? As the numbers grow, it makes us believe people want to search -- but really they don't. He digs into research released by GroupM in February to back his thesis, tells us about Bing's shortcomings, and asks readers to come along on a "dream" of an engine that provides notation options for findings, registers appealing elements, and learns from the input and the data.Read the whole story...

Dave sits down with Tom Demers to talk paid-search marketing. The two discuss ad strategy, copy, and metrics with a twist. The answers to the questions are short and to the point. Most have been Twittersized to fit into the 140-character format. For instance, when asked about his work with ad text crowdsourcing, Demers tells us the most surprising thing has been the consistency, and how small tweaks have double- to triple-digit impacts on click-through rates and conversions.Read the whole story...